Color Transforms

Marco Boschini once said, “Without color, il disegno may be called a body without a soul.” This statement literally tells us how important color means to a design. Everything surrounded us are in colors; for example, red apple, yellow taxi, green grass, or blue bird. Sometimes we even try to make clear glass with colors.

Imagine what our world would be like without colors. The world would be plain and dull.

The picture below is of my favorite umbrella, which integrates several colors including violet, green, yellow, blue, and pinkish-red. According to Itten’s coloring wheel, the colors on the umbrella are consisted mainly of tertiary colors, but also of some primary and secondary colors. In fact, the umbrella’s design is a demonstration of interaction among colors, and it alternates the how the color is portrayed by applying the colors in different sizes and in thick or thin lines. In addition, the thesis in the book of Interaction of Color wrote by Albert saying that color is subjective because color can be view differently due to its size, hue, or shape. For example, in the case of my umbrella, different size of line can make a color seen as another color. The thicker pink line makes the green looks like light blue. However, if the thicker green line when place next to the yellow thin line, the green line will transform into a yellowish green. The umbrella strictly abides by the laws of the coloring wheel.

(Photo resource: Ying-Chu, Chan)

Also, Part of color theory includes the idea of color psychology, which is the thinking of how color is correlated with out emotions. Colors can inspire sentiment in humans’ minds through consciousness. To illustrate, color can reflect our moods such as happy, sad, angry, or love. For instance, color red often related to passion, or love, whereas black often associate with sadness, or death. To illustrate, when comparing the umbrella’s tertiary colors to its primary colors, the tertiary colors portrays a lighter and livelier mood. With a mix among primary, secondary and tertiary colors, the umbrella would be able to communicate the alternating mood of its user.

Design is Dangerous

Generally, all designs can be dangerous to both humans and society if they were handled improperly; however, some designs due to their applications, are more likely to cause danger than other designs. For example, heavy-duty machineries such as construction crane are great representation of what dangerous designs can be.

(http://clearwaterbeachdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008_08_10_archive.html)

First, construction cranes have not been intentionally designed to be dangerous, but could became dangerous through flawed operations. Construction cranes are essential to today’s society and play an extremely important role in city modernization and construction advancements. Well designed and engineered, construction cranes allow construction workers to efficiently transfer materials and minimize project costs. In other cases, cranes are use to load and unload shipments off of freights, benefiting our bustling import and export businesses.  Despite all its uses, construction crane, if not used carefully, would cause more danger than the benefits it brings. To illustrate, a crane operator who has not been paying attention while working on the crane might accidentally drop a steel beam. Hence, the construction cranes would become a hazard for other workers. In this case, the construction crane was not been dangerous to begin with, but had become unsafe from flawed operation.

However, people tend to have the impression that construction cranes are dangerous overall because of the cranes colossal size. Moreover, people usually misinterpret that construction crane are not safe to be around because the crane often carries around heavy object that are gigantic compare to a single human. In addition, the slim appearance of cranes brings people to the hypothesis that the crane might break easily. Nevertheless, cranes are carefully designed and engineered to prevent the kind of danger mentioned above.

In conclusion, most of the dangers posed by the construction cranes are unintentional. Evidence demonstrates that most irreversible damages are cause by flawed operation rather than flawed design.

Utopian Design: The Copenhagen Wheel

One of the main concepts of a design is to solve problems. Most of the objects that are around us are designed to improve our society, objects such as computer, cell-phone, or cars; all of these objects contribute to improve our life in different places such as in information, communication, or transportation. As I surf on the Internet to find a unique utopian design, I have discovered “The Copenhagen Wheel,” designed by Christine Outram and students from SENSEable City Lab at MIT. It is a design that truly aims to improve our society.

(http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/wheel.html)

The Copenhagen Wheel is a wheel that can make a positive impact on the way we live. It can not only boost power, but also keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic. What makes this wheel special is that it can transfer human power into battery power; therefore, the wheel helps bikers to bike a longer distance and distribute more powers to the bike without the use of gas and other forms of consumable energy that pollutes our surroundings. In addition, the Wheel can be installed on our preexisting bikes, and it is fast to set up. The Wheel generates electrical energy from the physical power we input while we brake and cycle on the bike. Furthermore, the wheel has a pollution sensing function that tells the bikers real-time environment sensing capabilities including noise and air pollution. Other than the real-time environment sensing, it also contains congestion and road conditions. Moreover, it has another design element in which we can place our Smart phone on the bike and control the Wheel through our phone. From the phone, we can unlock or lock the Wheel, change gears, and select the amount of motor assist. In regards to aesthetics, it is simple and elegant and is different from other electric bikes because all the parts are concealed within the disk. Thus, we don’t have to worry about  appearance.

The Copenhagen Wheel is a revolutionary bicycle wheel design that provides both green and energy saving environment. It is indeed a design that is utopian because it aims to improve our society and to better our environment. 

will.i.am, Nicki Minaj - Check It Out

In design 1 class, the YouTube video “Check it out ” by Will.i.am and Nicki Minaj was showed on last Tuesday. It was an example of how music video combines words and image together. In the video, there is no written lyrics but filled with exaggerate facial and body expressions, and as well as some big Korean typographies. After watching the video, we had a small group discussion in class on what we think about the video. One of our group members, who has Korean background, mentioned that this video represents K Pop music because of the Korean typography, the clothing, and the dancing. Therefore, we thought this video is portraying the Korean culture and as well as conversing to Korean and American pop music. This video tells us that K Pop music is not only limited in Asia but also gradually getting popular around the world. Moreover, most people in our group agreed that the Korean words in this video could convey messages to audience even to those non-Korean speakers, which this video design has approached the concept of design as a conversation. It communicates not only the viewers in the video itself, but also other people. The words worked well with dancers by using pops forward effects in this music video. And the Korean words were designed in 3D effects, which was another communicating way to viewers. The clothing that the dancers wore was futuristic, and the dancers danced like robots, which makes the whole video in a futuristic theme. In addition, the bright pink, purple, and green were used in this music video that catches viewer’s attention. Also, the repetitive effects in both typography and human figures were commonly used in the video. Overall, the design elements in the video well combined words, image and music together that can communicate with people all around the world. 

Basis of Design Criticism: Logitech mouse

       In the field of design, every designer should know what the word ergonomic means, because it plays an important role in designers producing good designs. Etymologically, the word ergonomic originated from Greek and can be broken into two parts, “ergo”, meaning works and “nomos”, meaning law, so together they mean the science of work. According to International Ergonomic Association, it defines ergonomic as “The scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.” To briefly explain this statement, it states that ergonomic literally means the idea of applying science to make things comfy and efficient. In addition, ergonomic designs are consisted of five elements, which are safety, comfort, usability, performance (productive), and aesthetics.

Image source: Amazon.com

Image source: Amazon.com

     This Logitech computer mouse above is an object that I use on a daily basis; it is considered a great ergonomic designs. To illustrate, computer mouse is designed to reduce stress on the computer users who work for long hours, In this case, an ergonomic computer mouse is useful that it reduces the risk of injuries caused by repetitive motions, such as clicking and scrolling.

      First of all, the primary element of ergonomic design is safety. When designers design things, they need to regard safety as a priority. If safety is ignored, the product may cause injuries and harm its users. With safety in mind, the designers engineered the Logitech mouse so that there are no risks and danger when using it. In fact, the exterior of this mouse is made into a smooth round shape and does not contain any dangerous edges. Furthermore, this mouse is big enough to prevent children from swallowing it. Moreover, there would not be any electricity leakages because both the wires and electricity of the mouse is sealed tightly within the mouse. As a result, the mouse is designed to ensure the safety of its users, and its users can exercise the product without fears of getting hurt.

     To continue, comfort is the second element to look for when one is analyzing an ergonomic design. Comfort is an important element to products because it can reduce stress or distraught feeling in people who use the product. In contrast, we may develop health problems such as back pain if we consistently use a product in an uncomfortable way. The comfortable Logitech mouse allows us to relax and relieves the pressure of our wrist from extended computer usage. As mentioned earlier, the grid of the mouse is sleek and can be comfortably controlled.

     Despite safety and comfort, user friendly is another important element for creating ergonomic products. Complex designs and features can confuse the audience, so many designers and design companies tries to reflect the concept of “keep it simple” on their designs, which provides easy of use feature. This Logitech mouse is simple and easy to use; you only need to plug in the little USB receiver on your computer and turn on the power switch under the mouse. It is a wireless mouse that intelligently positioned its buttons at our fingertips, allowing it to easily perform tasks such as scroll, cut, paste, and zoom. It is also designed with a flexible rechargeable system that lets the users effortlessly charge their mouse through their computers.

       Next, the performance of a mouse design is determined by how well the mouse receives an order. For this Logitech mouse, it has a high performance sensor that can receive orders efficiently and smoothly. Also, the use of wireless helps the mouse to maneuver quickly and effectively. This computer mouse includes fast scrolling options that assist people to scroll through long documents and web pages. This special performance makes this mouse unique and “hyper-fast”. Moreover, the performance of this design is excellent because it actually works on almost every surface. The mouse can even perform smoothly on a glass surface. Thus, this mouse, without doubt, is easy and convenient to use.

       Finally, the last component of an ergonomic design is its aesthetics. In previous classes, we learned that aesthetic means the beauty of things that is visually pleasing to viewers. Looking at the mouse, it contains several sleek buttons, black and sliver color, and some lines on the mouse. Although this Logitech mouse is not colorful, the aesthetics of this computer mouse presents a functional feeling. This design simply demonstrates to the audience that it is an ergonomic and high performance computer mouse that consumers can look forward to purchase.

       In conclusion, ergonomic design approaches human’s natural laws. It combines science technology with designs and makes designs more comfortable and efficient. Nowadays, ergonomic designs are getting more and more important, because designs without ergonomic may cause health problems. Therefore, ergonomic designs not only improve our life but also prevent our health from being jeopardize. It is most important that a good ergonomic design meets the five basic components: safety, comfort, usability, performance, and aesthetics.

Plastic City

Since the beginning of design 1 class, Mr. Housefield started to question how and where can we find our inspiration when we design. In addition, we spent a class to do “Stone Soup” activity, which helped us to find inspiration within ourselves. Besides, Mr. Housefield also introduced many inspirable designers, such as Tom Friedman, Tara Donavon, and Andy Goldsworthy, and all of them finding their creativity from nature, or daily life objects. All the examples are helping us to understand it is important to explore our life and find creativity from our surroundings.
While watching YouTube, I came crossed with this video, a Taiwanese designer, Bang-Yao Liu also found his creativity from things around him. Liu thinks that creativity can be found everywhere around our life, which attached the concept that we have learned in design 1 class.

In the video, it was Liu’s first visit to Shanghai. And he found that Shanghai is filled with plastics materials, which caused him to want to make a “plastic city”. Without any planning or sketches, Liu gathered different colors, sizes, and shapes of plastics and finally made his “plastic city” that in his own view of Shanghai look. Although Liu’s is not a famous designer, and his works cannot compare with that of Andy Goldsworthy, or Tom Friedman, he still did a nice demonstration for us on how we find our inspirations. As a designer, I think it is essential for us to go around to different places, absorbing and learning information, and then design what we have learned.

Words&Images examples

When words and images are combined together, it tells story, or convey message to audience. We can find words and images interact in comics, page designs, advertising, book covers, or motion graphics.

(IMage source from Amazon.com)

A good book cover design makes audience starts to engage before reading the book. From the cover of Mom’s Cancer, it has a person sitting and looking hopeless near to the window. In addition, the image is made into two panels, which separates the woman’s head and body. This book cover caught my eyes when I first saw it. I started to guess from looking at the picture, why does this woman looks sad, and why is it designed in two panels? Then, after I know the name of the book, all the questions were solved in a second. I realized the book cover is telling the readers that the woman looks hopeless due to her cancer. And by knowing the woman is illness, I begin to understand the purpose of using two panels, which is a view from observers. Fies’ book cover of Mom’s Cancer is perfectly illustrated that when words and images come together, it connects to the reader right away.

(IMage source from Amazon.com)

The book cover above is another example to show the importance of words and images. This book cover contains two red chairs in a room and one chair looks falling down on the other. Looking at the image itself and since chairs is one of industrial design objects, I could guess that it might be a book for industrial design, or interior design. After discovering the name from the cover, however, the book’s topic is far from my guess. The book has nothing to do with design but is about general theory of love. In this case, we learn when both words and images come together, it create a powerful meaning. I can now know that the two red chairs represents human, and one is lying on the other, presenting human interaction. Furthermore, the color red symbolized “love.”
From these two examples above, we can comprehend the importance of words and images. Both words and images are important to exist in a design, because it both has its function; the words can explain the message, and the image allows us to picture. Combining words and images indeed can help readers to approach the real meaning behind a design.

Image & word-Brian Fies

Last Tuesday, we had a special guest speaker, Brian Fies, in Design 1 class. Brian Fies is a late booming graphic novelist who has published two graphic novels: Mom’s Cancer and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? Throughout his lecture, he talked about the reason that he made his two graphic novels, about the design process when making comic books, and about the importance of words and images come together it will produce a good connection to audience.
During his lecture, Fies first talked about his first graphic novel, Mom’s Cancer, published in 2006. It is a graphic novel that depicts how Fies’ mom’s fight against lung cancer, and how his family reacts to his mother’s illness. For this comic, Fies is telling a real story to others from his personal experience. Moreover, Fies talked about a very important topic that words and image combined together produces good communication. To explain this statement, Fies made an analogy comparing rock music and comic . Comics are a combination of words and pictures in a way of rock music is a combination of music and lyrics. Fies also stated that “The music is just repetitive, and the lyrics of rock music are just bad poetry. However, if these two put together, it all of a sudden became a song that define an era.” In here, Brian is trying to tell us that both images and words are essential to each other especially in comic strip. Fies’s goal pose in comic is that “Neither words and images has meaning without the other. It fully tells a story if two of them come together.”

In his lecture, he used one of the pages in Mom’s Cancer to illustrate that words and images are both important in comic strip. The page shows that his mom was literally drawing in medical jargon. It simply tries to say his mother was overwhelmed with all the new information. It is a really good example to show the importance of combining words and images together, because the message will not convey effectively with only his mom’s image but without all the medical jargon written in the background. From this illustration, it has changed my perspective toward comic books that images cannot perfectly communicate without words.
The illustration below is another good example on how words and images works together and the time space relationship of comics. It is a scene that Fies’ mother was getting an illness. By looking at the pictures, we can tell his mother is getting bold and sick; however, if we see the words together with the picture, we can understand that it has a further meaning, which Fies’ mother is debating her responsibility for her illness.

                            

After listening to Fies’s lecture, I believe there is a strong relationship between words and images. Images are important because it allow readers to imagine; however, words are more essential because it helps audience to fully understand a story.

Image source: http://www.helenjaques.co.uk/blog/2010/comic-books-medicine-patient-education/)

Mass-production object-Dyson

Industrial designers design an object with two basic elements in mind: functionality and aesthetic. Industrial designed objects, such as cell-phones, cars, and household gadgets, are often design to tend the needs of general audiences, and are mass produced most of the time to meet that goal.

Vacuum cleaner is a machine that fits in the category of industrial designed object. The main function of a vacuum cleaner is to people sanitize his or her nearby environment without the need to call for specialists. Being said, in the past decades, people started to pay more attention on not only the function of a vacuum but also its appearance.

(http://www.uncrate.com/men/home/appliances/dyson-dc-25-animal/)

Dyson Vacuum is one of the most famous vacuums in the world. It claims that the design has both form and content, meaning the vacuum is well designed in both appearance and function. When looking at the shape of the Dyson vacuum, its slick, streamlined wheel design is the most noteworthy, and the design delivers a message of cleanliness and efficiency. When I glance at the vacuum, the most remarkable feature that caught my eyes is “the ball” design in the bottom of the vacuum. Using “the ball” to replace the standard wheels that traditional vacuum used, “the ball” design makes the vacuum move smoother and easier like you are rolling a ball. Other then the fact that “the ball” maneuvers better than a standard wheel, the appearance of “the ball” compare to that of a standard wheel is more attractive to audiences, and this feature differentiates the Dyson from all the other vacuums.  

Dyson vacuum, a good industrial design, holds both content and form. This design truly improves the appearance and function of standard vacuums. As Dieter Rams said, “Good design should be innovative, useful aesthetic and understandable. Also good design is honest, unobtrusive, long-lived and consistent in every detail.” 

Green Design

(image resource:http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/?p=1153)

As of now in the 21^st century, people are constantly trying to fix the problems they had brought to the surrounding environment. Designers these days emphasize more on the use of used or recyclable materials and tried to fit their designs with nature. Therefore, environmental friendly designs has brought up as an important issue these years. Looking back to one of my architecture books, I have found the Lot-ek MDU House can be an example for the green building.

The Lot-ek Modular Dwelling Unit was made in 2002 and it was made of shipping-container prefabricate. This construction depicts the simplicity and outdoor of green living. The simplicity of the structure is a well representation that blends in with the surrounding nature. Moreover, Lot-ek MDU house is a functional constructed; it includes everything that a house would need. For example, it has bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and dinning room. All of these are filled with built-in furniture. Moreover, the space is divided into three parts, which accommodate social, entertainment, and private functions. Another famous feature of this green building is its multiple system. The multiple MDU system is “The vertical harbor is in constant transformation as MDUs are loaded and unloaded from the permanent rack. Like pixels in a digital image, temporary patterns are generated by the presence or absence of MDUs in different locations along the rack, reflecting the ever-changing composition of these colonies scattered around the globe,” says by Emily Pilloton. Furthermore, MDU can easily be transported from one spot to the next, with all the live and work amenitie.

Lot-ek MDU is an eco-friendly building that has the same function as the other normal houses. Unlike other houses, Lot-ek MDU house is made from used material, it is one of the original pioneers of shipping-container prefab. Despite its function, the design shows its aesthetics sense by using bright colors, clean lines, glass, and other used industrial materials to make the ugly shopping-container looks more beautiful. And it is how a good design should has which are good appearance (form) and functional (content).

Nowadays, green design is getting more and more essential in our society, although many debate that prefabricated house are not architecture, MDU house is still one of a good examples that eco-designers should think about when it comes to green design.   
image resource:
http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/?p=1153) 
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/13/lot-ek-shipping-container-house/

Objectified

After watching the film Objectified, I believe that design is truly everywhere in our society. Objectified is a documentary film made by Gary Hustwit. In the film, many industrial designers were interviewed. Designers talked about many valuable concepts and ideas, and especially their views on the interaction between content and form in design. It is an intriguing film about what goes on beneath the surface of our everyday objects we take for granted.

Early in the film, it showed that Japanese toothpick is not just a toothpick, but with its own meaning behind the surface.  The toothpick actually includes many design elements, it not only has the basic function for people to pick their teeth, but also has designs at the end of the toothpick that include two noteworthy elements, which function as an indication that the toothpick has been used and as a toothpick holder.

In the film, it also tells audiences that a good design is not only about its appearance (form) but also about its function (content). The film makes audiences think of why and how a design looks the way it does. A Japanese designer, Takahama Kyoshi, says that design is “dissolving the behavior,” meaning designer design things in order to make people live better and more naturally. Take the modern potato peeler from Smart Design company in San Francisco as an example, the peeler was first designed for people who have arthritis. In order to make the peeler more comfortable to hold, the company re-designed the traditional potato peeler by changing the peel holder to bicycle rubber holder. In a more ergonomics way, people may feel more comfortable when using the peeler.

Later in the film, car designers tell us how they design a car, and every car has a face of its own. When a car designer is designing a car, he or she thinks about the customers, whether customers use cars only when customers need the cars or when the customers need to represent themselves. Car designers have to consider all these elements and put them into one emotional energy, which is the audience needs to see others expressions.   

Henry Ford has mentioned, “Every object tells a story if you know how to read it.” And this idea has been spread over the entire film. From the Japanese toothpick to the car design, it is true that every object tells a story. And the job of designers is to improve our daily lives without us knowing it.

Unity

Gestalt theory was mentioned in the class as an important theory for designers to understand, because this theory helps designers to predict how the viewers comprehend a design. Gestalt is a Germany word for “form”, and "unified whole," and is also used in visual psychology of how our minds seek unity. According to the book Design Basic, they define unity as “a congruity or agreement exists among the element s in a design.” And how we look for unity is to understand the concept of perception as a process of pattern making, and self-organizing.

When we look at an image, our brain will seek out the unity naturally, such as the picture above that was shown in class and can be perceived as two different images. When professor Housefield first asked what can we see from the picture, I saw a duck, but then realized the image could also be seen as a rabbit. Regardless if we saw a rabbit or a duck, these two images cannot be seen at the same moment since our brain tends to find unity. 

Unity is always one of the main principles to apply in designing process, because it can assist viewer in understanding more about the design by pulling all the elements together. Take the famous children’s character Hello Kitty as another example. In this character, there are ears, eyes, nose, whiskers and a red ribbon, but no mouth. However, because of the unity, self-organizing, it is enough information for our eye to complete the shape, which is a cat, though it does not have a mouth. Unity help viewer to receive message correctly, thus it is essential for designers to understand unity and how unity works.

Compare and contrast

      Before becoming a design major student in Davis, I struggled on deciding which emphasis of art or design to major. First of all, between UC Davis and UC San Diego, I had a hard time choosing  which school to attend because they are all related to art in a sense. Despite the difficulty, after I went over both majors’ curriculums, I found out that classes required for design and for art studio are completely distinct of one another. Therefore, I have realized my image of design and art as the same subject was wrong. Although Design and art to share common knowledge and techniques, they are considered different entities.

       In the world of art and design, some people often combine art and design together and state the two are interchangeable. Even though both art and design share the same knowledge base and methods and carry aesthetics senses within themselves, the purpose of art and design is not the same. The basic purpose of art is to express one’s feelings or emotions through the practice, and sometimes describes the current environment experienced by the artist. In other cases, art can even serve as a tool for mental-recovery. Furthermore, art sometimes requires more interpretation than design. Art in many cases are not meant to be understood by the general but by a few chosen individual.

       On the contrary, most designs intend to serve a specific purpose. Designers use the same technique as artists such as drawing and painting; however, unlike art, design is less personal and more genearal. The purpose of design is to convey messages to others by using the same skills or medium art uses. In addition, design has a clear purpose. For example, looking at FedEx iconography, the design tells people that the FedEx company is reliable and fast. Therefore, in order to send the right messages to viewers, designers create designs tangible to that specific purpose along with aesthetic sensibility, enabling  the correct message to be send out.

Design as conversation

All the time, I have heard from many people that design is similar to conversation.  In fact, during the last session in Design 1, this topic regarding design as conversation was brought up and discussed in small groups. The question was how do one consider design as conversation and why. Throughout the group discussion, I stated that design as a form of conversation can be considered as a language that designers not only created for themselves but also for an wide range of audiences coming from different part of the world. Design, like conversation, can be used to convey one’s message to another person through visualization.

To further explain this idea, conversation means to communicate messages, such as one’s thinking or feeling, between two or more people. In a similar fashion, design  carries the same purposes, passing on one’s thinking or feelings, compare to that of conversation; however, unlike speech conversation, design visually conducts a conversation. As a result, design can be categorize as a form of conversation like languages. Visual communication, visual identity design, animation, and web design, are some of the many examples proving that design is conversation. 

One of the evidences that design can be considered a form of conversation is visual identity designs such as brand logos. Brand name and logo, a visual representation of one company, are the fundamental building blocks of a company. Each company’s unique brand logo represents its characteristics, missions and values. Logotype, a part of brand design, communicate a company’s ideology to the audiences and grabs the audiences’ attention. From the graphics to the typeface’s color, texture, and medium, audiences can acquire information such as the company’s function, concept, and the style of business through its logotype.

For example, the logo FedEx, one of the most renounce logotype designed by Lindon Leader in 1994, had won more than 40 awards and claimed worldwide recognition. This logotype with its Futura bold fond and the word “Fed” in purple is straightforward and simple. As for the design of the word “Ex,” which its color depends on the division it represents and ranges from orange, blue, green, to red, is clever at the same time convenient. For example, the division of ground is in the color of green, which can relate to the ground as green grass. Furthermore, the logo contains a hidden message that most people cannot realize unless someone points out for them. If one look into the design more carefully, one will notice an arrow in the negative space between “E” and “X”. This arrow represents the speed of a continuous forward movement and the main vision of the company. This hidden message is brilliant in that it subliminally communicates its vision to the audiences. Moreover, a hidden message in design is the same as a whisper during a conversation, the message will mostly likely be instill in one’s memory .  

For a company it is important to have a good logo design because a logo design serve as a bridge that connects the company and the customers. A logo design tells what customers could expect from the company and what the company’s vision are. In conclusion, one can state for sure that since logo design is a form of conversation, design has to be a form of conversation as well. 

Creativity from without

Last week in Design 001 lecture, Professor Housefield showed us a short film that relates with creativity. It is a film about a designer, Lisa Hoke, who creates her designs from things that surrounded her. In the film, we could see how she designed art for a gallery by using plastic cups that she had collected from her daily life. Regardless of the cups’ age, color, shape or texture, she gathered them and transformed them into prismatic art pieces on the gallery wall. From the video I have also noticed that Lisa Hoke did not have any drafts or plans for her created pieces, instead she spontaneously created the pieces outside herself by using those plastic cups. Finding inspiration or creativity is essential for every designer. The way Lisa Hoke find inspiration is by connecting to the daily world around her, such as tissue paper or plastic cups. To me, I would say creativity cannot completely come from “without,” but it also tends to encompass the things we had once encountered and experienced as its fuel. For example, inspiration can come from things such as an action of a friend, an image in a book, a sound from the park, or a sign in a restaurant. Creativity can be acquired from everything in our society and may happen to anyone at anytime. It is something like what we did on the Stone Soup activity last Tuesday, where no one can predict what the final piece would be like. On the other hand, everyone just let the objects lead itself into its final form while inspiring one another to complete the Stone Soup. In another case the same idea was shown in another film from design 1 class, where designer Andy Goldsworthy find inspiration for his creativity outside of himself through nature surroundings.  

Lisa Hoke, Blue, 2007 plastic, paint and hardware 25 x 27 x 3 1/2 inches

Lisa Hoke,Boxed Sets, 2008 match boxes, paint, rivets 14 x 12 x 10 inches

 

Photograph and sculpture by:Andy Goldsworthy

Photograph by Andy Goldsworthy

Typographic portraits

Typography is an art of writing represents in different illustration technique. It is used everywhere around the world, for example from our textbook to the billboard on high ways. The design of typography requires immense specialties and usually involves people such as typographers, graphic designers, art directors, and comic book artists. In the modern era, typography has become an important key element for graphic designers in our digital society.

When I was browsing on the Internet today, I came across portraits consisted not with typical lines and drawings but with variety of typefaces in different colors, sizes, and fonts.  I was surprised that typeface can be used to such an extent, rather than just letters for writing and explanation of designs. The set of portraits are a series of typographic illustrations of different musicians made for Grammy 2009. The portraits of the artists’ face were produced by musicians’ song titles, and each of the song title was colorfully integrated in to the musicians’ portrait.

Because we live in a digital era now, font designers have became more and more popular. Some designer has developed typefaces to create visual designs such as the portrait posters for Grammy 2009. Typography designers use fonts and apply them into images by changing the colors, textures, or size of the fonts. With this approach, the designers can create with fonts a picture similar to that drawn with typical elements such as lines and shadings. In this distinct form of font design, designers can help viewers to understand more in depth about the purpose of design by integrating that correlates to the meaning into the design. For me, I have learned that one can use anything possible to create and one needs to think out of boxes as much as possible. 

photo resource:http://musicisart.ws/grammy-typography/

Stone Soup

(http://www.healthykidsideas.com/march-2010-beyond-stone-soup/)

On Tuesday’s Design 1 class, we participated in an activity called Stone Soup. Prior to the activity, Professor Housefield had a talk about the origin of Stone Soup, which is an old tale in children’s book that inspirits the idea of creating out of nothing but with collaborative work. Following the activity, everyone was asked to bring any objects that are recyclable for our Stone Soup’s materials.  

In the beginning of this activity, our group sat in a circle and our mentor Catalina asked us to throw out everything we had brought to the middle of the circle. There were varieties of items: plastic bottles, magazine, wrapping papers, cardboard boxes, fake moss, tapes, and acrylic paints. After gathered all the things we brought, we did a quick brainstorming. Then, we shared different ideas with each other on what can be created and started to combine each other’s ideas together. Finally, we agreed upon our first decision, which was to use cardboard boxes as the base of our design, and a few ideas to follow up with.

During the Stone Soup activity, my group members and I learned to respect different opinions from each individual and cooperate with others to achieve an ultimate goal. Furthermore, we also learned to created things with limited resources and spontaneous thoughts during the process of adding objects on to the cardboard little by little. In part of the design, we painted the paper plates by using acrylic paints to make the plates look like petals. Then, we wrinkled up pieces of wrapping paper in to balls to mimic the looks of pistils. At the same time, we learned not only to create but also to compromise for secondary materials when we lack the primary materials. For example, when we ran out of tape, we used iron wires as a bonding material.
Basically, in this activity, we learned how to cooperate, shared ideas and create. And most importantly, we learned how to find inspiration out of ourselves; we tried to find our inspiration from the recyclable materials.   Although putting ideas together at the beginning was tough, it was worth the time. As each of the team members’ ideas combined to gradually shaped out the final piece, we all felt a sense of accomplishment. With no rules and pressures, but with loads of ideas, we finally created a spectacular art piece consists of combined creativities from each individual.       

      

Perfume design

Perfume is one of the beauty inventions that enhanced scents for human body. The origin word of perfume came the Latin word "per fumus", meaning “through smoke.” The history of perfume dates back to over thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt for ceremonial purposes.  However, in the past few centuries perfume has evolved and integrated into our culture as an essential need for many people.

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/health-and-beauty/clinique-happy-perfume.asp

One of the first perfumes I had was the Clinique-Happy perfume. In the beginning, I was merely attracted by the scents, which are the refreshing smells mixed from flowers and fruits. Then gradually, I noticed the designs of the perfume bottles and have become intrigued by the variety of shapes from bottle to bottle. For the Clinique-Happy perfume bottle, simple and clear are the best ways to describe this perfume design. The bottle design does not contain any fancy decoration or complex graphic, but the simplicity of this fragrance bottle with its brand name in white and perfume name, “Happy,” in orange stands out above all else . The simplest design that correlates the names with a sense of freshness is an easy and straight forward design that  tells people “this perfume can make you happy!”

Nowadays, rather than just the scents of the perfume, bottle designs has became an increasingly important aspect of how the perfume is perceived. Each bottle design can briefly explain the scents and the characteristics to the prospective customers. In my view, a good perfume considers not only the scents but also the bottle design. Like the perfume in the bottom of this picture, the perfumes’ caps are carved into the shape of a bear’s and rabbit’s head, and the body in light blue and pink. These design elements may recall one’s childhood memories such as the time when one use to play with is teddy bears and stuff animals. Furthermore, the usage of a soft and light color can be associated with children’s naïve characters. With all of the characteristics, this perfume strongly shows that it is made for children, and the smell of this perfume should have a very light sweet and soft scent like that of baby lotions.

http://www.kaloo.com/kaloo2008/parfum.eng.htm

What is Design?

What is Design? This is a term that many people may have hard time defining. It is also a question that can be explained with variety of answers such as design is a process, design is how something works, or design is a visual communication. From my perspective, design is a way of communication for people to transform their ideas or feelings into spectrums of concrete objects. The process of design and the actual design object represents exchanges of information through behavior and sign. Design maybe similar to languages, but it is a designers’ language that we do not have to learn in order to understand it. Every design depends on the designer, or the creators. Each design has its own way of conveying messages to others. Design is a widely understandable language, which one can use everywhere around the world. Designers create designs from what they have absorbed or discovered through their eyes, and exhibit the information and message in forms that others can understand. We do not have to know a certain language to understand design, so there are no doubts that design is the most extensive form of communication.

Furthermore, although design is a way to communicate with people, due to different backgrounds that a person came from, the message from a  design may be view differently by different individuals. 

http://www.completely-coastal.com/2010/08/lisa-givens-sea-shell-finery.html

For example, this decoration made from seashells, for me, is a very common home decoration because I grew up in a home that is fill with seashell decoration. However, for someone who came from a different surrounding, they may portray this decoration as an expensive decoration sold in malls.  

We are surrounded by many designs; for example, whether the no picture taking signs in museums or the no smoking sign in the restaurant. It is a simple design that can easily convey the correct message between the audience and the designer.

                        

by Nymagirl Photography love VI

http://Nymagirl.deviantart.com/art/Photography-love-VI-109772893?q=&qo=

Looking at the photograph above. A simple message is send to the audience by the photographer. A photograph that contains a camera and a strip of film made into a heart shape reveals that the photographer maybe  trying to show his or her love for photography. 

First encounter with design

( http://www.preciousaccents.com/010005-p-swarovski-figurines&show=500.html)  

(http://www.crystal-fox.com/index.cfm/2008_swarovski_introductions.htm)

When I reflect upon my first encounter with design, the first image that comes to my head is my mom's Swarvoski animal figure collection. I have always remembered the day that I discovered this fascinating set of jewelries in my mother’s shelf and became attracted to the design and the details of the collection. The collection was made by faceted clear crystal and sculpted into different kinds of animals such as bear, swan, tiger, and elephant. When these figures are placed under a white display light, sparkles with various color emanated from the figures is absolutely breath taking. Out of all the figures, a small swan about the size of 6 inches in height and 3 inches in length seems the most elegant. The stunning details presented in the curvature of the swan’s neck and on its body make it extremely vivid. Moreover, not only did the details grab my sight, but also the pose of the swan, which reveals a sense of grace and nobility.  When lights are blasted directly at the crystal swan, the gradual alteration in the swan’s color intensity as I modify my viewing angle captured all of my attention with every stare. Because of this collection, especially the crystal swan, I have developed an interest in design, and my first picture drawn was actually of the crystal swan. Although I have uncovered many other crystal sculptures that are more delicate and defined, the crystal swan still serves as an essential design to me. It not only is the first inspirational design to me but also a design that guided me with its glistening lights when I feel lost.